United Airlines Earning and Using Miles

Earning Miles on United

United offers a 500 mile minimum on short flights, a 25% bonus for business class, and a 50% bonus for first class. Northwest and Continental, it’s worth nothing, offer a 50% bonus for business class as well.

United offers significant earning opportunities on Star Alliance partners around the world. These airlines include Air Canada, Air China, Air New Zealand, ANA, Asiana, Austrian, bmi, EgyptAir, LOT Polish, Lufthansa, SAS, Shanghai Airlines, Singapore, South African Airways, Spanair, Swiss, Tap Air Portugal, Thai, Turkish Airlines and US Airways. Non-Star partners include Air One, Aloha Airlines, Emirates, Island Air, Qatar, TACA Airlines and TAM. Mileage Plus members can also earn at the usual array of hotel, car and shopping partners.

United offers a generous sign-up bonus for its credit card, often giving more than 20,000 miles for signing up for their co-branded credit cards. Mileage Plus Visa holders can also use their points to pay for trips where award seats aren’t available. In this case, a traveler would use 20,000 miles to pay for a $200 ticket.

Using Miles on United

United’s award chart is basically in-line with all of the other carriers, offering few surprises, pleasant or otherwise. The most pleasant surprise, though, is that given the large number of partner airlines, you will have a good chance of actually redeeming miles for an award if you’re a bit flexible with your dates and routing.

For the past few years, United has offered a special 15,000 mile award for flights under 750 miles. While this may not seem like a particularly impressive bargain, it can be, especially on monopoly routes around the Midwest. This offer disappears from time-to-time, so be sure to ask for it if you need a short-haul reward ticket.

United Airlines Secret:

United quietly offers one of the best award ticket values in the sky: For just 5,000 miles, you can get a round trip ticket on Island Air between any islands in Hawaii. Every other airline charges 10,000 miles for this same ticket.

United does not charge a fee to book an award ticket, but they do charge $25 for booking on the phone, up to $100 for booking a flight within 21 days of departure, and $150 to change an award flight.

United Airlines Secret: United doesn’t display all partnership availability when you do a reward search on its website. To find out if Star Alliance partners have seats available (both in coach and premium cabins), sign up for ANA’s frequent flyer program. You’ll be granted access to their online tool that allows you to search for reward travel, both by cabin and by leg – a very useful tool if you’re trying to build an itinerary to Asia, where you have many, many options for how to get to your destination city. The online tool will likely save you hours of phone time with a United agent.

Learn More About United Airlines Mileage Plus

United Airlines Mileage Plus Overview
United Airlines Hubs and Routes
United Airlines Earning and Using Miles
United Airlines MileagePlus Elite Status
United Airlines Mileage Plus Elite Status Matching